Question 1
How do your products use or challenge conventions?
Conventions of music video.
In our music video, we all have decided as a group that the theme we got from analysing the lyrics was depressing and sorrowful. We later on have applied that in our music video matching the lyrics and each of the scenes. We made made sure our actress had this sad look on her face throughout the music video. This has similarites with some of the artists out there such as lana Del ray's music video for " summertime sadness" . The video has this yellow toned, summer themed similar to how we reflect to the lyrics in our music video. The depressing sorrow theme was emphasized and was done by the mise en scene used such as her dress and makeup. Everything adds onto the sad gloomy mood of the music video.
1. " Everytime i get stronger" ( A strong sad facial expression shown)
4. "Summertime sadness"
3. " While i'm waiting here for you" - This shows the actress behind her shoulders looking into the far distance, waiting for the her man.
Not only this, there are also links with the music and the visuals. From the start till the end of the video, we tried to make the beat of the song match the change of the scene. The can be clearly shown in the first 12 seconds of the video. We did this to emphasize the music as well as the music video. The reason being is because when there's a music video, the audience tends to focus on the content of the video and ignores the music. However, by doing this, it'll prevent people from excluding the music and focus on both music and video. This can also be seen in Charli xcx' s music video "boomclap". It clearly shows how each of the scene changes according to the beat, which was really similar to what we did. The Camera work is also really similar as it follows the main character in the video. Charli xcx's seen as this beautiful powerful independent women and this is shown through her the camera work ( low mid shot, behind the shoulders shot) and mise en scene like her costume and makeup. Comparing it back to our music video, My melanie also has makeup on to emphasize the sadness inside her as well as her dress. The way the two singers are portrayed through their costumes is really similar. 
Throughout the whole music video, we try to make every scene reflect back to when we want to show and to also portray our theme. We tried to emphasize Thai culture with a mixture of emotions and sadness along with the lyrics adding on to the actress's acting. In terms of the footage, we have had plenty of tourist attraction scenes that we've shot and went to. We tried to add this in the music video as much as possible because showing too much of the main actress won't at all reflect back to the Thai culture we're trying to introduce. The frames in each of the music video varies as we went to at least 5 different places. We also want the camera angle to influence the emotions and impression people have towards the actress. In some cases, the angle shot is a low angle showing how powerless the girl in the video is,
which also supports the lyrics.
Some shots show the scenery from a high angle in order to the whole area of it. There are many different framing and angles focusing on the intimate moments in the video. If we really want to emphasize something in the video, there would be close up shots. This could be compared with the "boomclap" music video, as it also involves different locations in Amsterdam, showing it's culture as the camera follows the singer, similar to what we did.
In this music video, the main focus of everything is this actress being treated like an object, being thrown away by her lover, reflecting back to how men are cruel, really taking on the women's side. The lyrics also are meant for girls trying to be strong after what a man had done to her. This has huge influences on how different genders are represented. Men are seen as this strong dominant figure and are able to hurt women emotionally. Women on the other hand are portrayed as weak individuals, crying over her lover that left her for someone else. This music video takes a female side and shows clearly how weak she is putting up with her love life problems, while figuring herself out and this could all be due to this one guy, who has all the power.
In order for the artist to be able to get into character , she'll need to go through some real experiences and apply the same feeling and action in the music video. The record also sent her to get acting classes as well as singing. My Melanie's star persona is created by how her image is endlessly represented and reproduced across a range of different media. The record does this and promotes the singer by letting paparazzi freely take photos of her, giving interviews frequently.
b) Conventions associated with my sub-genre
Website
This is the first page to our website. Our ideas for the website design is mostly influenced by Lana Del Ray's official website. We specifically chose this layout to emphasize who My Melanie is since this allows us to put her face in the center of the web page.
Inside the Website
Inside the website, there are also fan messages written by My melanie herself as this acts as a one way form of social media so the fans may feel like they are a part of this loving my melanie community. The message explains her story and journey which may appeal to those who are super fans wanting to know more about her. This is a form of promoting an artist as not only she gains a god reputation but her story will be heard and may be seen as inspiring for the younger community.
We got this idea from Adele's message to her fans and how it works so well.
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